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Thursday, October 7, 2010

Debate

In our last critique group meeting an interesting topic had come up- when to use italic for POV. Some of us thought that italics shouldn't be needed as the reader knows we are in hero's/heroines POV, but some of us believe when talking to ones self either sarcastically or whatever, should be in italics.

Here's an example:

"What else did he say?"

Apart from the where abouts of Jimmy Hoffa's body. She sighed, "Nothing. He left after that."

So, using this example I would love to know your opinion and I'll take the consensus to the next meeting.

3 comments:

Let's hope this doesn't get lots of replies- cause then it would be a 'mass debate'! I italicise thoughts of characters in particular sarcasm or dry humour type thoughts. I just think it gives more of an impact.

I've found it tends to be more of a house style when it comes to this. Most of my editors only let me italicise direct thoughts and they need to be in first person. If they're not in first person I have to take the itallics out.

They're often used in dream sequences, but most of my editors agree on one thing - itallics should be used sparingly because readers find itallics harder to read. I also used itallics in my book The Bottom Line to show the character's blog entries clearly.